Wednesday, November 11, 2009 An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903

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COLLEGIATETIMES
106th year, issue 114

News, page 5

Features, page 2

Opinions, page 3

Virginia
Tech

Sports, page 6

Classifieds, page 4

Sudoku, page 4

Religion

playing the

blame
Numerous violent incidents
puzzle university community
BY PHILIPP KOTLABA | university news editor
oes Virginia Tech breed
mass
murderers?”
asked a recent San Jose
Independent Examiner
commentary headline.
With the realization that
alleged Fort Hood shooter
Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot-dead 13
soldiers and wounded 31 others, was
a 1995 alumnus, all eyes once again
turned to Tech.
“What are they doing to the students
over there?” asked Twitter user “swedishniceboy.” User “HolyHo33lymoley”
wrote, “Maybe the govt should start
profiling V.T. students and alumni
from now on.”
The true contributing factors leading
to a violent crimes are much more difficult to discern.
Don Shoemaker is a professor of sociology at Tech and sits on the university’s Violence Prevention Committee.
He arrived at Tech in 1974.
“Some people outside the university may be making that connection,”
Shoemaker said. “I don’t think it’s a
valid connection; I just don’t see it.”
On April 16, 2007, Tech student
Seung-Hui Cho carried out the largest
mass murder in United States history
on Tech’s campus, taking the lives of 32
Tech students and faculty and wounding numerous others.
Over a year later, with the limelight
seemingly fading, graduate student
Xin Yang was beheaded on Jan. 19,
2009, while sitting in the Graduate Life
Center’s Au Bon Pain Cafe. Graduate
student Haiyang Zhu is charged with
the murder. His trial is scheduled for
January.
In late August, Tech sophomores
Heidi Childs and David Metzler were
found dead in the Caldwell Fields
area of Jefferson National Forest. No
charges have been filed in the case.
Additionally, Tech student Morgan
Harrington has been missing since
attending a Metallica concert on Oct.
17 on the campus of the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville.
“People are wondering why ... Tech
seems to keep coming up,” Shoemaker
said. “I don’t have an answer for that.
There is no answer for that. I don’t
think it does have a violence-fostering
climate, any more than you would find
at any other university.”
A look at Department of Education
crime statistics between Virginia’s public college campuses does not generally
raise eyebrows.
For example, four forcible sex
offenses were committed at Tech and
the smaller College of William & Mary
in 2008. UVa experienced five in the
same timeframe.
The year of 2008 saw 64 burglaries on
Tech’s campus. However, UVa reported
73 in the same year.
The exceptions are in murder and
non-negligent manslaughter statistics.
The April 16 shootings accounted for
the 32 murders at Tech in 2007.
It is this number, coupled with the
tragedies of 2009 — the murder in the
Graduate Life Center in January and
the double homicide near Caldwell

Fields in August — that repeatedly
brings the university under scrutiny,
said John Welch, director of communication for Students for Non-Violence.
“We’ve been taking a hard hit this
whole semester, so it’s definitely elevated Virginia Tech in the media in a bad
light,” Welch said. “All that commentary is very ignorant. It just happens
to be another bad coincidence, and
it’s definitely going to contribute to the
stigma around Virginia Tech.”
Still, Welch said the campus community has not fundamentally changed as
a result. He also said the campus has
not felt many effects from the Fort
Hood shootings.
“People now are a little bit more
on edge, but I don’t think this latest
incident has caused anyone to feel
uneasy about their personal safety on
campus.”
Jerzy Nowak is director of the
Center for Peace Studies and Violence
Prevention at Tech. Although he
ignores the comments about a link
between the Fort Hood shootings and
Tech, he has responded to a multitude
of parents with similar, sincere concerns.
“Some of them broadly ask questions,
‘What’s wrong with Virginia Tech?’”
Nowak said. “I see nothing wrong.
People try to look for a scapegoat.”
Still, he does not deny the recent
spate of bad luck.
“The frequency of these tragedies is
unbelievably high,” Nowak said.
He attributes much of it to a broader
societal tension, whether it is due to
growing unemployment, socio-economic inequalities, or even fueled tensions amid the current federal health
care reform debate.
Secondary victims of tragedies such
as April 16, 2007, include parents and
family members of the victims. As a
result of the multiple incidents, Nowak
said that every member of the Tech
community could be considered, to
some degree, a victim as well.
“Emotionally, you have to reflect
what’s happening even if you were not
here,” Nowak said. “You see the symbols. You walk through the Drillfield,
and you see the memorial.”
As a result, Nowak said, reporting
crimes that have any sort of link to Tech
became almost part of the culture.
James Kenny is a professor and
school violence prevention specialist
at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Last
month he presented a campus seminar
entitled “Stronger Than We Think:
Self-Empowering Skills that Reduce
the Risk of Violence” on behalf of Tech’s
peace center.
He downplayed Tech’s connection to
Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter
who graduated with a biochemistry
degree in 1995.
“It really has nothing (to do with
Tech); he was a graduate,” Kenny
said. “You guys have 30,000 students,
and you have an amazing amount of
graduates each year. 99.9 percent of
them are accomplishing wonderful
things.”
see BLAME / page ﬁve

e
Companies
selected
for biotech
conference
VICTORIA JAMES
news staff writer
Three local companies have made it to a
prestigious biotechnology conference in the
nation’s capital.
Intrexon, BC Genesis and Synthonics, all
from Blacksburg, were selected to be company presenters at the 2009 Mid-Atlantic
Biotech Conference at the North Maryland
Conference Center in Bethesda, Md.
The event, which lasted from Nov. 4-6,
featured more than 850 top bioscience leaders
and investors from 30 states and 10 countries.
The year’s conference featured a healthcare
policy panel that provided conference attendees with “insider information” to help adapt
to upcoming possible federal health reform
legislation and how to benefit from federal
stimulus funds.
Howard Dean addressed the conference to
explain how healthcare reform would affect
the biotechnology industry.
Randal Kirk, the CEO of Intrexon, was
featured as a plenary speaker at the conference. Kirk received his bachelor’s at Radford
University and his juris doctorate from the
University of Virginia.
Sponsors of the conference, specifically
from the research and university package,
include Tech along with other Virginia universities such as George Mason University,
UVa, James Madison University and Old
Dominion University.

Mental
Health

Norris Hall room to
honor heroic professor
CLAIRE SANDERSON
& SARAH WATSON
news staff
A room in the second
floor of Norris Hall has
been named in honor
of professor Liviu Librescu, a
victim of the April 16, 2007,
shootings who blocked the
door to allow his students to
escape.
Norris Hall’s second floor,
where shooter Seung Hui Cho
carried out the second round
of shootings, was renovated
and re-opened on April 10,
2009. As one of the six new
rooms that have been created,
the Dr. Liviu Librescu Student
Engagement Center will serve
as a place for students to
meet and work together on
projects.

The idea for the honor
came from faculty in the
Department of Engineering
Science and Mechanics, and
was officially approved at the
Board of Visitors meeting on
Nov. 9.
Librescu is being honored for
his courage on April 16. He
blocked the door of his Norris
Hall classroom, while students
slipped through the windows
to safety.
Librescu spent his adolescence in a Jewish ghetto. After
surviving the Holocaust, he
pushed forward to become an
engineer.
During Communist rule in
Romania, Librescu earned his
Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering.
However, he was forced to
sneak his writings to publishers

in other countries for recognition.
Librescu emigrated to Israel
in 1978, before settling in
Blacksburg in 1985 with his
wife.
He served as a professor
in engineering science and
mechanics at Virginia Tech for
21 years.
While at Tech, he received
a number of honors and
awards including AARP the
Magazine’s “Most Inspiring
Person of 2007.”
Librescu’s legacy continues
to assist students through
the
many
scholarships
in his name, along with
the Student Engagement
Center.
Pat Artis, an alumnus of
Virginia Tech, gave a gift to
help establish the center.

Orange & Maroon 5

D.C. metro
area sniper
executed
Gov. Tim Kaine issued a statement Tuesday
after denying clemency for John Allen
Muhammad, one of the convicted 2002
Washington, D.C. metro area snipers.
In the statement, Kaine stated the reasons
for the execution, which was held Tuesday
night at the Greensville Correctional Facility.
In Virginia, Muhammad was convicted of
the planned murder of Dean Meyers in 2002.
He and Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested for 10
murders and three other shootings in the
Washington D.C., area.
The Virginia Supreme Court confirmed
Muhammad’s convictions and death sentence on April 22, 2005. The United States
Supreme Court rejected Muhammad’s petition for a writ of certiorari on May 15, 2006.
“Having carefully reviewed the petition for
clemency and judicial opinions regarding this
case, I find no compelling reason to set aside
the sentence that was recommended by the
jury and then imposed and affirmed by the
courts,” Kaine’s statement said. “Accordingly, I
decline to intervene.”
by priya saxena, news staff writer

JOSH SON/COLLEGIATE TIMES

Guns

Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine performs for Virginia Tech in
Burruss Hall Tuesday night. The band is on a nationwide tour of
college towns. photo by hussein ahmed/spps

DESPITE RHINESTONES AND TIGHTS, TECH’S
TWIRLERS ARE PART OF A DEMANDING SPORT
TERESA TOBAT
features editor
he two baton twirlers
on the field during
halftime are hardcore
about their sport.
“I’ve pretty much
broken every finger
that I have,” said Ashley Bell, a
fifth-year “feature twirler” and a
graduate student in diary science.
Bell has been twirling for 11 years
and is performing on an injured
ACL that she dislocated during the
season’s first game against Alabama.
“I didn’t think I was going to go
out, but I went out anyway,” Bell
said. “I did not come all the way
to Atlanta not to march this show.
It’s just a normal twirling injury,
and then the swelling never went
down.”
Bell will have surgery in January to
repair the damage, but in the meantime she remains optimistic about
her condition. She wears a black
knee brace at all times when she is
performing and practicing.
“It’s attractive, I’m not going to lie,”
she joked.
Baton twirling is not an easy task.
Two twirlers are required to hoist
at least one, and as many as three
batons, up in the air and perform
around the field during shows. They
twirl the batons, which are about 29
inches long and weigh less than a
pound, continuously throughout
the pregame and halftime shows.
Bell said that it’s imperative that she
and the other twirler stay focused
during games.
“It’s a lot harder than people think,”
Bell said. “It does get hard, especially
when you’re doing multiple baton
work. You’re constantly doing one.
When you’re constantly juggling,
you have to be aware where the
other band members are. We have
to adjust to them.”
Bell said baton twirling is a sport
and she treats it as such.
“It’s not what it used to be where
it’s just marching in parade and
simply baton twirling,” Bell said. “It
has evolved to really high standards.
I don’t think it gets enough recognition for how much time we put into
it. We put as much time into this as

Olympic world champions do. We
put in the time. We go to contests.
We go to camps. We go and teach
and train.”
Currently, there are two feature
twirlers, and they are part of the
Marching Virginians. They keep the
same practice schedule as the band,
which means they are working on
their routines Monday through
Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This
doesn’t include the extra time the
twirlers spend working out to stay
in shape.
Kaytlyn Schmitt, a sophomore
interdisciplinary major in education, has been twirling since she was
a one-year-old. In addition to making every band practice, Schmitt
visits the gym at least three times
a week. Schmitt needs to maintain
her physical health to excel in the
dynamic sport of twirling.
“It requires the gracefulness of a
dancer, the flexibility of a gymnast,
but also the stamina of a runner,”
she said.
Schmitt said she becomes more
nervous when performing at
competitions than at Tech sporting
events. At competitions, the smallest
mistake could cost her a win, but the
focus of twirling changes when she’s
at football games.
“When you’re at Tech and you
step out into the field, it’s a whole
different experience,” Schmitt said.
“It’s so much fun and it’s just about
performing. Performing in front
of 60,000 plus fans is such a great
experience. They’re so full of spirit,
and the band’s music just pumps me
up even more.”
Despite continuously perfecting
their craft, the weather conditions
inside Lane Stadium can provide an
interesting situation for the twirlers
when they perform.
“If it’s really sunny or if it’s rainy,
the baton could slip,” Schmitt said.
“Twirling in the rain can be fun. It
does make it a little bit harder.”
During windy weather, the twirlers must pay close attention to the
baton to make sure they catch it.
When it’s cold outside, the twirlers
try to keep the gloves on before
stepping onto the field so their
hands aren’t numb.
Bell and Schmitt dress like per-

formers on the field. Bell described
their twirling outfits as flashy bathing suits with a skirt and said adorning her attire is one of the most
enjoyable aspects of her sport.
“It’s my favorite thing. It really is,”
Bell said “I sit on costume Web sites
all day long. I really do. I’m obsessed
with rhinestones. My guilty pleasure
is to sit and rhinestone things.”
However, the baton twirlers’ flashy
ware requires that they must dodge
the occasional cat-caller.
“We obviously don’t dress like
the band,” Bell said. “We have our
costumes we wear every game.
People tend to hit on you when you
don’t look like everyone else. We’ll
be warming up on the sides of the
band stands, and people from the
North End Zone will come and try
to talk to us and get us to do tricks
for them, and then usually when we
go around to the side, people are like
‘Do something for us. You’re so hot.’
You get used to do it. Obviously after
five years, I’m used to it.”
Bell said she adjusted to the attention gradually.
“I’m here to entertain, pretty
much,” she said. “It was definitely
something I had to get used to the
first time. The girls prior to me,
they warned me. You know, you
gotta be careful. Men are all around
— you definitely don’t realize it until
it actually happens. Trying to go
to get food after halftime is not an
easy task.”
Bell said she usually just ignores
it and walks away. Although, not
all the attention they receive is
unwanted. Bell said she treasures
the moments when younger fans
who aspire to be twirlers will want
to take photos with them.
“That’s the highlight of the games
for me,” Bell said. “It’s great to be
such a great role model for kids. I
really enjoy that the most.”
Admiration from fans isn’t the
only thing that the twirlers enjoy.
Schmitt said they complement the
band’s performance and add to the
overall experience of a game.
“I think it gets the crowd engaged
in the band’s performance,” Schmitt
said of her work. “Just hearing their
sound is amazing. And we just add
to the visual effect like the guard.”
Schmitt and Bell are members of
the Marching Virginians. They both
travel with the band and complete
the same service projects.

“The band has such a great sense
of pride and community and closeness,” Schmitt said. “There are still
only two feature twirlers. We stand
out maybe a little more. But we’re
still all part of the band, 330 strong.”
The director of the Marching
Virginians David McKee, along
with the assistant director, the band
and a group of knowledgeable
experts are charged with screening
the twirlers via video the summer
before they come to Virginia Tech.
After the initial test, the group
sends the finalists a piece of
music that the twirlers must
perform to in a live audition
four weeks later.
“This is a situation where
talent matters most,” McKee
said. “The ability to perform at a high technical
level and take a piece of
music, listen to it and
interpret it so their movement enhances what they’re
trying to do musically.”
The twirlers are given free reign
over the routines.
When asked if he felt comfortable
giving Bell and Schmidt essentially
complete independence when it
comes to choreographing McKee
responded: You betcha.
“One of the keys with our success
with features twirlers is it’s a very
independent role,” McKee said.
“Here’s the drill, here’s the music,
you have your skill set, go do it.
These two are very independent.
Over the years, the people in this
position have welcomed that independence.”
The Marching Virginians have
had as many as three feature twirlers
and, in some years, none at all.
“They appeal to a very strong
contingency out there,” McKee said.
“They add just another little bit of
‘wow.’ Because these two perform
at such a high level, the ‘wow’ that
they add is even at a higher level.
These two are really good at finding a moment in the show design
to really pop out and there are other
moments where they need to get
out of the way.”
McKee said he is both impressed
by Bell and Schmitt’s high talent level
and their outstanding character.
“The skills that these two have are
enormous,” McKee said. “It’s great
to have people around like that who
are multi-dimensional.”

LUKE MASON/SPPS

Passion 2010 tour comes to Burruss
JOYCE KIM
features staff writer
Wednesday Nov. 11, the Passion
2010 University Tour will be coming
to Burruss Auditorium with artists
Charlie Hall and Steve Fee leading a
night of praise and worship.
Charlie Hall, a Christian worship
leader and songwriter, has been with
Passion Conferences since it first
started 12 years ago. He was a college
student at the time when Louie Giglio,
the founder behind this movement,
asked him to join. At the time, Hall
was making records about revival and
the church, which matched with the
vision that Giglio had.
Passion Conferences is a regional
event with conferences aimed to mobilize students to reach out and affect the

world, said Isaac Barber, leader behind
vtONE. Passion works with the Six
Steps Record label, which showcases
major Christian artists who carry the
same heart of helping the world
through movements such as building
wells in Africa and fighting against the
sexual slave trade.
vtONE was created to bring the
numerous Christian ministries at
Virginia Tech together, and the Passion
2010 concert is taking what this ministry does and beefing it up, according
to Barber. He said it is an opportunity
not only for the campus, but also for
our entire region to come together and
worship.
Students will get to see that the body
of Christ is bigger than their specific
organization, and this concert is not
a way to promote the artists, but the

check it out
What: Passion 2010
University Tour
Where: Burruss Auditorium
When: Tonight at 7:30
Acts: Charlie Hall and FEE
Tix: https://secure.secure
268.com/universitytour
name of Jesus, Barber said.
When the university tour was being
planned in the spring, the organizers
saw that the Baptist Collegiate Ministry
on campus had already signed up to
take 20 students to the Passion 2010
Conference in Atlanta, Ga., and were
the only group in Virginia that did.
April Uebel, the associate director for

BCM, said that this was why they were
initially contacted.
Still, another connection between
Tech and Passion had already been
made in years prior. Giglio came to
Tech after the April 16, 2007, shootings to give an encouraging message
to students and had called to see if
there was something that the campus
could host.
Though this tour is aimed to get
students excited for the Passion 2010
conference in January in Atlanta, Hall
said it is a night to stir expectations,
have prayer, worship and to have a collegiate, world-wide awakening.
“College is an awesome place in life
where students have stepped out of
their homes,” Hall said. “Especially
their spiritual shelters, and (they) have
to make decisions for themselves.”

COURTESY OF CHRIS HALL

Chris Hall (above) and FEE will be the two acts performing tonight in Burruss.

‘Big Lebowski’ star Jeff Bridges takes on a few new characters
STEVEN REA
the philadelphia enquirer
In “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” Jeff Bridges
plays Bill Django, a military man who returns
from Vietnam to embrace the ‘60s counterculture headlong; the whole Aquarian Age, flower
power, altered states of consciousness thing.
But rather than drop out of the Army, Django
is allowed by the Army to train a new squad of
men: a group of would-be warrior monks who
employ psychic powers to slay, but preferably
sway, the enemy. The movie, which premiered
at the Toronto International Film Festival in
September and opens at theaters Friday, is an
inspired and nutty affair that also stars George
Clooney, Kevin Spacey and Ewan McGregor.
Based on the (yes) nonfiction book about
government paranormal intelligence ops, “The
Men Who Stare at Goats” is no less loopy than

Bridges’ character: a tie-dyed mystic, a potsmoking visionary.
“I’m a product of that age, that era,” says
Bridges, who turns 60 next month. “You know,
I did a lot of things that folks did back in the ‘60s
and ‘70s.”
One of those things was hanging out with John
Lilly, the psychedelicized philosopher famous for
exploring man-dolphin communication and
developing the isolation tank.
“I was a buddy of John’s,” says Bridges, in
Toronto for the premiere. “I was one of his
subjects in the isolation tank, he studied my
responses to it. ... So when it came time to do
‘The Men Who Stare at Goats,’ I really looked
back into that part of my past.”
Fans of “The Big Lebowski,” in which Bridges
stars as the stoner sleuth the Dude, would say
Bridges brought plenty of that character to Bill
Django, too.

“I wasn’t really thinking of the Dude when I
was doing this, I was going for a different thing,”
he says. “But I can see how people would think
that.”
Bridges, son of actor Lloyd and brother of actor
Beau, lives in Santa Barbara when he’s not working, although lately he’s been working a lot.
In a succession he cannot now remember,
he shot “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” “The
Open Road” (with Justin Timberlake), “Crazy
Heart” (with Robert Duvall), and “The Dog
Year” (with a border collie named Ryder) back
to back to back.
For Bridges, whose filmography includes
“The Last Picture Show,” “Hearts of the West,”
“Starman,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys” and
“American Heart,” an acting career seemed a
foregone conclusion. After all, his first screen
credits were on 1958 episodes of his father’s TV
series, “Sea Hunt.”

But Bridges says he didn’t fully commit to his
job until after he had shot “The Last American
Hero,” the 1973 picture in which he starred as
race-car driver Junior Jackson.
“Normally, after a movie I’m exhausted, a
certain emotional muscle is exhausted,” he says.
“I don’t feel like pretending to be somebody, I
just want to be myself. And you get this feeling
of ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this ever again.’ And
thankfully, I’ve learned over the years that that
feeling subsides, and then you start to get horny
to make another movie ...”
But in the days just after he shot “Last
American Hero,” his agent called with an offer
of a part: as Don Parritt, the teenage son, in John
Frankenheimer’s big-screen version of Eugene
O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh.” Fredric March,
Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan were already cast.
And Bridges told his agent he wasn’t interested.
“About five minutes later I get a call from

Lamont Johnson, the director of “The Last
American Hero,” and in his very deep voice
he said, ‘I understand that you turned down
‘The Iceman Cometh’? ... You call yourself an
actor? By god, I’m disgusted with you!’ And so
I decided to do a little experiment on myself. I
understood that when you’re a professional you
have to do it when you don’t feel like it, and I said
‘Well, I certainly don’t feel like it, but I’ll just throw
myself into this thing and it will probably put the
final nail in the coffin of my acting career.’”
So Bridges made “The Iceman Cometh,” and
over the course of the rehearsals and the shooting, the young actor bonded with Hollywood
leading man Ryan and found himself hanging
with the estimable March and Marvin.
“I had such a great time jamming with these
old masters,” he remembers. “And at the end of
that I said, ‘Oh yeah, this is something I can do
for the rest of my life.’”

The Collegiate Times is an
independent student-run newspaper
serving the Virginia Tech community
since 1903

Your Views
[letters to the editor]

Learning the law
might change
your ideas

A

s a student at one of the
most unfortunately infamous universities in the nation,
I am well aware of the hot button issue of gun control and
concealed carry. It seems absurd
to many people that anyone
should want to allow students
to carry concealed weapons on
campus. They speak out against
it for the sake of their own safety,
and not long ago I was one of
them. I grew up in a peaceful household with an ex-cop
father and a mother who felt no
need for weapons in the house.
My feelings on the matter were
mostly uneducated perceptions
that guns were bad and should
be left to the professionals.
Since coming into the real
world, I understand that the
professionals are not the only
ones that are going to have them
and use them by any means. I
sat in class one day with a friend
of about six months and noticed
an empty leather holster about
his waist. Curious, I inquired
as to the reasoning. He told
me all about a club on campus
known as SCCC — Students for
Concealed Carry on Campus
— and had a small debate with
me on the subject matter. I was
amazed by his knowledge and
viewpoint, so agreed to join in
on one of these meetings. The
information I received was eye

opening and encouraged me
to learn more about gun control
and safety, as well as the matter
of concealed carry on campus.
Immediately following the
meeting, I walked home and
jotted down some thoughts
on the matter from what I had
come to understand:
We fear that which we do not
know or do not understand and
judge perceived protection by its
face. But how can we condemn
the rights of those who take, at
hand, protection of their own
without a trace? Those who
do not wave about or flaunt it
as a power, those who follow
trust, training and law, when we
cannot prevent another murder
every hour by the one’s who take
advantage of this flaw?
Choose to put your faith in
those who wear badges and
praise them for the peace of
mind instilled, but do not turn
and scorn the time it takes to
get them there while all the
while innocent are killed. If we
prevent the rights of those to
carry at their side, we do not
halt the danger to be grieved.
Only persecute the few, who by
good sense and law abide, and
condemn ourselves to the safety
we perceived. I encourage others to participate in the activities
this week and reflect on what
they see, too.

Sara Reilly
sophomore
biology & wildlife science

Student Orgs

[students for a sensible drug policy]

Anti-Drug War does
not equal pro-drug
S

ince I have become the
leader of the Virginia Tech
chapter of Students for Sensible
Drug Policy, I have continually
encountered the same question:
Are you pro-drug? Individuals
make the assumption that the
fact that I oppose ineffective
anti-drug legislation somehow
implies that I advocate drug
use.
In a sense, I find such an
assumption sort of confusing.
Does being pro-choice imply
that one is pro-abortion? Does
supporting one’s right to eat
fatty foods from McDonald’s
suggest that you are pro-obesity? The simple answer is no.
In both of those scenarios, we
have acknowledged the fact that
a person has the right do what
she pleases with his or her own
body, so long as nobody else is
hurt.
Let us briefly consider the purpose of the law. We have laws to
prevent people from murdering
or raping one another. We have
laws to prevent theft and unethical business practices. In each of
those scenarios, the law serves
to protect people from what
other people might do to them.
There is a victim and a victimizer. When it comes to drug
use, however, the victim and the
victimizer are the same person.
The one who snorts the coke or
shoots up the heroin is the same
person who ultimately suffers
because of it. So whom are drug
laws protecting you from: yourself? It seems the overall purpose
of drug laws is to protect people
from consuming products that
are detrimental to their health.
If that is the case, why not pass
a law that bans people from
eating Twinkies? After all, eating too many sugary foods can
also lead to obesity, diabetes and
decreased life expectancy. Why
not mandate that everybody
exercise at least three times a
week? Aside from the fact that
such laws would be expensive
and difficult to enforce, they
probably would not be very
effective.
Each individual is responsible
for his own physical well-being.
No government mandate can
determine how people will
ultimately act toward their own
bodies. Point in fact: There is
still a large amount of drug
use despite the fact that drugs
are illegal. Almost 50 percent
of surveyed American adults
have reported using marijuana,
and about 17 percent have
reported using cocaine. Perhaps
it should be considered that
irresponsible behavior toward
one’s own body, while not a
good thing, is a matter of personal choice. A person has the
choice to stop eating fatty foods
and start exercising on a regular
basis. Alcoholics can pursue
treatment for their addiction
without fear of legal sanctions.

Obesity and alcoholism are
regarded as health issues. Why,
then, is drug use considered a
legal issue? In fact, a study by the
RAND Corporation concluded
that drug treatment is a cheaper
and more effective method of
dealing with the drug problem
than law enforcement.
Ideally, society should make
drug treatment easily available
for those who seek it, and create an environment, which is
not hostile to those with drug
problems. For example, after
Portugal decriminalized drugs
in the early 2000s, there was a
rise in the number of citizens
who sought treatment for drug
addiction. Drug enforcement,
on the other hand, ruins lives
far beyond the point of the
actual conviction. For example,
Indiana Congressman Mark
Souder recently proposed an
amendment to the Student Aid
and Fiscal Responsibility Act
(SAFRA), which would have
denied federal financial aid
to students with minor drug
offenses had it passed. (Luckily
it was killed due to the efforts
of SSDP chapters around the
country.) Furthermore, people
with criminal drug convictions
on their records are less likely to
receive jobs than people without
such convictions, even if they
have cleaned up their acts.
These measures seem counterintuitive because people who are
denied jobs or an education are
more likely to relapse into drug
use. In essence, making drug use
a law enforcement issue instead
of a health issue creates a hostile
environment in which drug
users are unable to receive help
to pursue the necessary life-style
changes for fear of putting a red
flag on themselves.
One of the consequences of
living in a free country is that
freedom implies that each individual is responsible for his own
actions. This includes what he
chooses to do to his own body.
Drug use and other unhealthy
behaviors are negative lifestyle
choices that can cause a great
deal of harm, but since there
is no distinction between the
victim and the victimizer, it
is absurd to use law enforcement to deal with the problem.
Rather, society should create
an open and positive environment that encourages people
who partake in such unhealthy
behaviors to personally seek
treatment for their actions. The
role of the law is not to protect
people from themselves — if
that was the case, then all the
bars in downtown Blacksburg
would have been closed a long
time ago.

Mark Goldstein
acis & management major
students for a sensible
drug policy president

MCT CAMPUS

Ideology hinders health care
reform more than logic
T

he U.S. House of Representatives
has just passed a health bill
that will provide for transformative changes in the American
health care system, and the efforts of
those who oppose such reform have
been equally as momentous. The bill’s
congressional opponents have beaten
the dialogue down with ideological fervor in an attempt to filibuster
the issue until 2010 election-weary
Democrats are reluctant to take a
stand. If these actions were based
on sound reasoning, they would be
justifiable in my mind, but the facts
say otherwise.
Some of the major arguments of
the anti-health reform movement
— which is the dominant stance
taken by the current congressional
Republican membership — are
that a public health insurance option
would be too costly to taxpayers,
would produce agonizing waiting
times for patients and weaken individual autonomy over health care
decisions, and would be unnecessary
because America has the best health
system in the world. However, there
is ample evidence that strongly suggests all of these oppositional claims
are wrong.
Let’s start with the taxation claim. We
know that any government activity
will cost money, and the government’s
form of revenue is taxation. The bill
just passed in the House proposes a
5.4 percent surcharge tax applied to all
Americans earning at least $500,000
annually, or families earning $1
million annually, according to Lori
Montgomery and Shailagh Murray
(The Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2009).
Conservatives in Congress almost
unanimously balk at any suggestion
that raising taxes is acceptable, but this
is particularly true when, as is the case
with the current health bill, the tax
increases would be applied to the rich
largely in order to provide for the payment of other people’s health insurance. But, as will be shown in more
detail, the health care system is failing,
and it threatens to bankrupt this country over the long term. Opposing taxes
at every turn and disregarding the
entitlement payments (like Medicare
and Medicaid) that are bound to
rise to completely unsustainable
levels in the near future would
effectively mean condemning the

“

Today America is the only
advanced nation worldwide
that doesn’t have universal
health care coverage.

nation to a permanently weakened
financial state. No one complains
about the incredible governmental investment of the national
interstate system implemented
by the Eisenhower administration in
the 1950s; well, this was only made
possible by the fact that the wealthiest citizens in the highest income
tax bracket were paying over 90
percent of their annual income in
taxes (as opposed to just 35 percent
today, and most exploit loopholes
and tax shelters to pay even less). Yet
somehow the current proposals for
slight tax increases on the wealthiest
Americans are met with congressional vitriol.
And what about the nature
of our health care system? What about
the claims that we still have the best
health care coverage in the world, and
that any government intervention in
our health system would lead to government takeover? Take a look around.
Today America is the only advanced
nation worldwide that doesn’t have
universal health care coverage. Are we
supposed to believe that every single
one of these foreign health systems is
characterized by the iron fist of government hammering their citizens’
autonomy into the soil? Opponents
of U.S. health reform often point to
other nations in warning of the brutal
waiting times that would accompany a public health option here
in the U.S.; what they don’t mention, according to New York Times
columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, is
that “citizens of other countries
get longer hospital stays and more
medication than Americans do
because our insurance companies evict people from hospitals
as soon as they can stagger out of
bed” (NYT, “Unhealthy America,”
Nov. 4). Kristof provides a clear
example of this in highlighting
a report from the McKinsey Global
Institute, which found that 90 percent of hernia surgery in the U.S.
is performed on an outpatient basis,
compared to just 40 percent in

Britain.
Yet, perhaps the most striking
deficiency in our health system is
in outcomes. According to Kristof,
the latest World Health Organization
findings show that America ranks
31 among all world nations in life
expectancy, 37 in infant mortality,
and 34 in maternal mortality.
Kristof also mentions a study by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
and the Urban Institute, which found
that, in gauging how well 19 developed nations succeeded in avoiding
preventable deaths, the U.S. ranked
last.
The health outcomes are
sad, but they are made all the more
unacceptable when you consider
how much we spend on health care.
Many studies have found that
the U.S. currently spends roughly
16 percent of GDP on health
care, while a 2009 study by the
Organization
for
Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD) found that no other
advanced nation spends more
than 11 percent of GDP on health
care. How can we justify doing
nothing about the situation
when we rank so poorly in
so many key health statistics
while still spending far more than
any other country does on health
care?
The statistical data overwhelmingly suggests that the push for
health reform isn’t merely some
byproduct of a liberal agenda in
Washington, but, rather, a systemic crisis that threatens the ability
of the U.S. to maintain the financial stability and dynamism that
have created the greatest society
mankind has ever known. And for
politicians on Capitol Hill to
choose a miniscule individual
financial interest over the public
good, given these circumstances,
would be a mighty shame
indeed.

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GETTING COLD TIME to Plan your Spring
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Blame: Tech taking steps College grads must work harder to get jobs
to stop violent incidents
GREGORY KARP
the morning call

from page one

But if Tech is not responsible for
“breeding mass murderers,” what is?
Hasan’s Muslim identity has perhaps
been one of the most publicized details
about his possible motivations in the
Fort Hood massacre.
Although American Muslim leaders, including Tech’s Muslim Students’
Association, widely denounced the
murders, some have chosen religion as
their scapegoat, Nowak said.
Kenny added that one incident
should not cast a shadow on all Muslim
American soldiers.
“I think that’s not fair to those soldiers
who have Islamic beliefs,” Kenny said.
Mental health has also played a role
in many murders associated with Tech.
Cho had visited Cook Counseling
Center several times before the April
16 shootings, and although Hasan was
a psychiatrist, some suspect a mental
disorder affected his judgment.
“There’s always a reason (behind a
crime),” Kenny said, “and I think one
of the biggest problems is that we try to
look at these things from our perspective,
and they don’t seem to make any sense.”
However, using warning signs to
prevent violent crime is a difficult, but
possible, task,” he said.
“Almost every major shooting that’s
occurred in the last 10 years — if you
look at the newspapers (on) day one, it’ll
talk about ‘random and senseless’ shooting,” Kenny said. “When you look (at)
day 4, after there’s been some investigation and someone’s looked into it, you’ll
see it wasn’t so random.
“It was predictable. There were warning signs.”
Consequently, Kenny said the effort
to prevent violent crime should center
on identifying those individual warning
signs and bringing them together.
“The reality is that we really don’t train
people to look for warning signs,” Kenny
said, “and we don’t train them to act on
warning signs, and we don’t provide the
right mechanisms for them to report
them.”

According to Shoemaker, it is a struggle to achieve the right balance between
missing early warning signs preceding a
violent crime and paranoia of everyday
behavior.
“You don’t often think of that leading
to what happened in Texas,” Shoemaker
said. “The dots aren’t always connected,
because you don’t always assume that if
somebody says something, that in the
years from years from now they’re going
to go out and kill 10 people. That just
isn’t normally done.”
Shoemaker and Kenny both said
Tech had made considerable progress,
however, in building up its capacity to
prevent violence and push for a safer
campus.
The threat assessment team, for example, is working to set up an early warning
process. When someone experiences
a potentially dangerous situation, he
would have numbers to contact relating
to that concern. It is the kind of program
Shoemaker emphasized was essential to
“connect the dots.”
“I was very, very impressed with what
I saw down at Virginia Tech,” Kenny
said. “A lot of these programs are relatively young, but you’re doing the right
things.”
However, doing the right things does
not guarantee 100 percent success,
Shoemaker said.
“Even if something were to happen
in the future, it would not be entirely
a necessary indication that we failed
somewhere,” Shoemaker said.
Kenny expected in a few years that
people are going to focus not just on
April 16, but the measures taken in reaction to the shootings.
“We’re going to be coming to you for
leadership,” Kenny said.
Students for Non-Violence, the student-led offshoot of the peace center, is
already working on teaming up with the
Residence Hall Federation to lead a film
series for younger students on campus
to learn about violence prevention.
Another item on its agenda is choosing the speaker for the third Day of
Remembrance on April 16, 2010.

Correction
-In “BOV votes in MBA fee, talks
insurance” (CT, Nov. 10), there was an
error in reporting Virginia Tech’s goal
for faculty salaries. For the 2009 fiscal
year, Tech planned for faculty salaries
to be at the 49th percentile compared
to peers selected by the State Council
of Higher Education for Virginia, not

at the 60th percentile as originally
reported. Tech’s faculty salaries currently rank at the 35th percentile. Tech
plans to have faculty salaries at the 60th
percentile for the 2012 fiscal year.
The Collegiate Times regrets
this error.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — College
students graduating in December
and May are likely to be the first in a
generation to enter a job market featuring double-digit unemployment.
That has colleges and universities
across America scrambling this fall to
revamp their career-placement offerings to help new grads land jobs.
Autumn is one of the crucial
recruiting seasons, especially for students who want to find employment
at Fortune 500 companies.
But the outlook for coming college
graduates is decidedly grim. On top
of a 22 percent decline in college-grad
hiring last year, employers expect to
chop those entry-level hires by an
additional 7 percent this year, according to the National Association of
Colleges and Employers.
“What we’re seeing is they’re really
being cautious,” said NACE spokeswoman Andrea Koncz.
That dismal hiring forecast is even
worse than hiring plans following the
9/11 terrorist attacks, when hiring
came to a virtual standstill. Average
starting salaries for 2009 grads
dropped 1.2 percent from the year
before, to $48,633.
Those facts are why career counselors across the Lehigh Valley have
worked to shift the mind-set of soonto-be grads entering the work force.
The basic message: You’ll have to bust
your butt to land a job in this lousy
job market.
“What students did years ago
isn’t enough today,” said Amy Saul,
director of career development at
Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa.
For example, today’s students are
encouraged not only to participate in
an internship program, but in two or
three to boost their chances of being
hired.
“Competition is much more fierce
than it has been in the past for entrylevel candidates,” she said.
And the tough economy has created
a distressing paradox. Just as students
most need career-placement services,
many colleges are cutting budgets in
their career centers as part of their
own belt-tightening.
About 55 percent of college career
centers nationwide are cutting their
2009-10 spending plans, according
to preliminary results of a survey
being conducted by NACE. Lehigh
Valley college career centers haven’t
made sharp cuts, but some are running leaner.

COURTESY OF MCT

Jose Flores, 23, of Allentown chats with John Quinones, vice president of recruitment for Major
League Baseball, inside Dana Hall at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Worse yet, career-services departments are now catering to more than
just current students. Recent grads
who haven’t found work or were
laid off are returning for help. In fact,
some alumni are returning decades
after graduation to use job-placement
services.
For Kate Hunter, director of career
services and internships at DeSales
University, that meant she had to
brush up on techniques to help people land mid-career jobs. “Sometimes,
we’re combing through 20 years of
experience on an old resume to find
skills that are transferrable to the current job market,” Hunter said.
To cope with the bad job market,
unemployment is 9.8 percent nationally, local colleges are launching new
programs, revamping old ones and
tapping alumni for help.
At Lehigh University in Bethlehem,
job postings dropped off a cliff in the
spring. The career center started emailing alumni who might help. That
doesn’t sound extraordinary, except
that for the first time it e-mailed
every single living alumnus it had an
address for, an estimated 10,000, said
Donna Goldfeder, director of career
services. Goldfeder corresponded
personally with every alum who
offered a job lead. The result? Some
300 job opportunities for Lehigh
grads, she said.
“We broadened our net with
employer outreach too, but to be
honest, that didn’t have nearly the
effect of reaching out to the alums

did,” Goldfeder said. By the spring
semester, the career center plans to
have a new online database to help
students contact alumni directly.
A sampling of new efforts:
Moravian started a pilot program
this fall called Career Connections.
It matches students with advisers
based on their interests and targeted
professions. It also has “Lunch and
Learn” events, including recent and
upcoming ones with recruiters from
Major League Baseball and Mars Inc.,
maker of M&Ms and Juicy Fruit.
Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.,
is tapping more than 600 volunteer
alumni and parents to participate
in mock interviews over the phone
and in person. Students are using
InterviewStream, an interviewing
practice tool that allows students to
record mock interviews using a webcam for later critique.
Northampton Community College
has launched a job club that will offer
advice on such topics as resumes and
job fairs, networking and interviewing techniques.
Muhlenberg College plans a new
program on effectively using the
online professional networking site
LinkedIn, said Cailin Pachter, career
center director. Muhlenberg ramped
up efforts to help students apply for
jobs with the federal government,
a notoriously arduous process. The
Allentown college also puts together
an electronic book for employers and
alumni that contains seniors’ resumes.
Usually assembled in the spring, it is

being assembled now. DeSales
adjusted its one-year-old Senior
Success Series, which contains eight
programs. Changes included starting
job searches earlier and incorporating a strong networking component,
Hunter said. While new efforts and
programs are more newsworthy,
many colleges are re-emphasizing
tried-and-true job-search techniques:
writing resumes and cover letters,
making contacts and developing a
firm handshake. “It’s career searching 101,” Goldfeder said. Using such
high-tech resources as LinkedIn and
online job postings are important,
but they don’t replace old-fashioned
face-to-face networking, career counselors say. That has college students
throughout the Valley practicing their
elevator pitches, describing their value
in the time it takes to ride an elevator.
Muhlenberg even hosts “speed networking” events to practice those 30second spiels, followed by an alumni
networking reception where they use
those networking skills for real.
“It’s not about going online and
looking for jobs anymore,” said
Hunter of DeSales. “It’s about getting
your face out there and getting your
resume into the right hands. It’s going
to take a lot more legwork.”
While some strategies can be taught
in groups, there is increased demand
for individualized advice, counselors
say. Lehigh University dramatically
expanded the number of hours it
offered for one-on-one career counseling, Goldfeder said.

NICK CAFFERKY
sports staff writer
The Virginia Tech softball team
has much rebuilding to do from last
year’s team that featured five starting
seniors.
Now, if the Hokies want to succeed
in the upcoming season this spring,
they need big contributions from
younger players, something that the
team saw for the first time during
two tournaments this fall in games
against Penn State, Lock Haven, St.
Francis, Liberty and Limestone.
Moving toward the spring season,
Tech has some significant holes to
fill both in the field and in the
lineup. Not only did the team
lose three starting infielders,
but those five graduating players represented over 70 percent
of the team’s offense last year.
Even though the team went
into the fall season with several
questions about its lineup, it came
out with a good bit of optimism
because of several players stepping up.
“We really didn’t know what
to expect before the tournament because we had so
many young players, but
I think everybody played
exceptionally well for fall ball,”
senior Whitney Davis said.
One of the impressive freshmen
has been Bkaye Smith, who had
an exceptional fall and will most
likely be the leadoff hitter when the
regular season starts in February. She
will have the task of replacing Jenna
Rhodes, the All-American player
who occupied that spot last year.
In addition to Smith, Courtney
Liddle will be another freshman that
will have an immediate impact on
the team. She will be featured in the
revamped middle of the lineup with
senior Misty Hall and sophomore
Kristin Graham, who hope to provide some power.
“Courtney Liddle was phenomenal, hitting three home runs and
over .400 for us in the fall,” said head
coach Scott Thompson. “She
is someone that we are really
going to be counting on
to get the job done in
the middle of the
order.”

Overall, though, if Tech wants
to have a potent offense, the team
knows that balance will be the key to
scoring runs.
“I think we can see some power
throughout our order, but our savior
is going to be our balance and hitting
with runners in scoring position,
which is a problem we had last year,”
Thompson said.
With such drastic changes in the
lineup and inexperienced players filling the major void left by the senior
starters, Tech’s biggest asset will be its
strength in pitching.
Not only is junior
Kenzie
Roark
returning from a
season with an
excellent 2.73
earned run

S
N/SPP
MASO
E
K
U
L

average, but the Hokies added junior
transfer Ashton Ward from the
University of Tennessee who comes
into this season with a career record
of 30-7. Sophomore Abbie Rexrode
and freshman Jasmin Harrell will
also get time in at pitcher to help out
in some critical spots.
“I think it’s really good that we have
a deep pitching staff on this team,”
Ward said. “We are all different types
of pitchers with different pitches, and
I think Coach Sherwood is helping
us out a lot. If one of us needs help,
this staff is going to be really good at
helping each other out.”
The Hokies finished the two fall
tournaments with a 6-2 record
and averaged nine runs a game in
the final tournament, giving the
team hope that the offense might
come along quicker than previously
thought.
“We never got to see our full
blown lineup the way I think we
look like our best,” Thompson
said. “Winning is always a good
thing, but the fall is about seeing
us against the competition. I
don’t think that the pitching we
saw will be what it’s like in the
ACC, but at the same time we
scored a lot of runs, which is what
you’re supposed to do.”
While the fall season is
over and the Hokies do not
play again until the spring,
the team will continue
working out individually with coaches and
have two clinics in
December. Tech’s
season officially
starts Feb. 12th
against Drexler
in Jacksonville,
Fla.

The Virginia Tech wrestling team
split its dual meet this weekend with
an 18-20 loss to Kent State and a 21-18
victory over Chattanooga on Saturday.
Tech had a comfortable 18-7 lead
over Kent State in its first matchup
with three duals to go. The Golden
Flashes put together a string of three
consecutive wins, ending with an 114 pin, outlasting the Hokies by a final
score of 20-18.
After placing 15th in the national
rankings in 2008 and coming off a 20win season with all 10 starters returning, many believe the Hokies deserve
to be nationally ranked.
Their showing against Kent State said
otherwise, though.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,
our focus isn’t dual meets this year, and
I guess right away we proved it,” said
head coach Kevin Dresser. “We don’t
deserve to be ranked in the top 20 right
now. It’s still early. Not going to get too
excited at this point. We got to get back
to work and have our guys buy into
what we are doing.”
Sophomore phenomenon and reigning Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie
of the Year Jarrod Garnett was part of
arguably the most entertaining dual of
the day as he used a takedown in overtime to beat Kent State’s Troy Opfer 8-6
in the 125-pound competition.
“I was preparing for overtime,”
Garnett said. “I told myself I was not
going to lose this match. I got my
comeback, the last takedown, and held
him for the last nine seconds. I could
tell he was tired, and I knew that he
wasn’t going to be that offensive from
the start.”
Tech increased its lead when seventh-ranked junior Chris Diaz and
redshirt junior Matt Epperly earned
two shutouts against the Flashes.
Diaz cruised to a 6-0 triumph over
Kent State’s Chase Skonieczny, and
shortly thereafter the 165-pound
Epperly pinned State’s Sli Bostleman
in the third period with a final score
of 12-0.
“I came out there knowing that
last year I didn’t end on a good note,”
Epperly said. “I ended up fourth in the
ACC. This preseason I just concentrated on proving to everyone that I
am the real deal. I got my stuff together,
and I just went out there to wrestle, and
the score spoke for itself.”
Kent State kept fighting, however.
When the Golden Flashes stared down
an 18-7 deficit, their wrestlers stepped
up.
Tech’s 17th-ranked junior Tommy
Spellman lost 8-6, and afterwards,
freshman Chris Penny was
bounced 11-4.
With the score at 18-14, the
heavyweight dual loomed
large.
Tech’s 197-pound senior
Tim Miller moved up a
weight class for reasons

NIELS GORAN BLUME/SPPS

Chris Diaz wrestles Vincent Ramirez (UNC) during their semiﬁnal
match. Diaz went on to lose in the ﬁnals to Alex Krom (Maryland).
undisclosed to face 285-pounder
Brendan Barlow.
Miller did not stand a chance as he
was pinned late in the third period to
give the Golden Flashes a 20-18 comeback win.
Later in the day against Chattanooga,
the Hokies’ Garnett and freshman Erik
Spjut put the Hokies on top early.
In the 125-pound weight class,
Garnett recorded a pin against
Chattanooga’s Demitrius Johnson in
a swift 1:13. Spjut recovered from a
tough loss earlier in the day to beat
Chattanooga’s Josh Sandoval 10-4.
In the next match, the Hokies lost
ground again.
While Diaz easily won his bout
earlier in the day, he wasn’t as lucky
against Chattanooga’s 20th-ranked
Cody Cleveland, who took over in the
third period with two huge takedowns
and pulled off a huge 11-6 upset win
for Chattanooga.
Fortunately for the Hokies, sophomore Pete Yates followed in a much
easier dual than he had in his first of
the day against Kent State.
Instead of outlasting an opponent
3-1, Yates used his quickness to pin
Chattanooga’s Dean Pavlou in 1:38 in
the 149-pound competition.

“Last year was real disappointing,”
Yates said. “Wrestling the whole season
and doing well and then not performing well in the tournament, I knew I
had to come out this year and finish
strong. That’s my goal.”
In the 184-pound weight class,
Spellman showed his toughness as he
survived a late push by Chattanooga’s
Niko Brown, pulling out a 6-4 victory.
Dresser decided to forfeit the 285pound weight class since freshman
Andrew Miller is still with the football
team and junior D.J. Bruce is nursing
an injury.
“I think the thing we probably
learned from the second match is that
we battled back a little bit better and
dealt with some adversity,” Dresser
said.
“We are not even close to where we
need to be, but it’s the first weekend
of the year. There were some positive
things and some negative things. For
the first time all season it gave the
coaching staff something to work on,”
he said.
Up next for the Hokies is the ACC
Challenge Duals in Chapel Hill, N.C.,
this weekend where they will take on
American, Bucknell and GardnerWebb.